Hospices desperatley need funding (From News Shopper)

Hospices desperatley need funding

10:19am Wednesday 27th March 2002 in News

Britain's children's hospices are woefully underfunded, which leaves many dying youngsters without the chance of respite care. EMMA COUTTS-WOOD meets a brave mother caring for her ill child at home.

A DYING child faces spending his final six months without specialist care because there are no more beds at a children's hospice.

Oliver Gilmore, aged two, from Abbey Wood, has cerebral palsy and a serious heart condition.

His mother Sheila has struggled for the past 12 months to get a place for him at Demelza House Hospice in Sittingbourne but because the hospice receives no funding from the Government and is short-staffed, it has been unable to offer Oliver a bed.

Sadly, Oliver is just one of many terminally-ill youngsters which the hospice has been forced to turn away.

Last week, the News Shopper launched a campaign calling for statutory government funding of children's hospices, like Demelza.

While adult hospices receive about a third of their running costs from the NHS, children's hospices receive less than four per cent and some, like Demelza House, get nothing.

This means parents like single mum Sheila, 34, of Eynesham Drive, face the prospect of no respite care for their dying children.

She said: "I've been told by doctors Oliver probably has no more than six months to live because he has Hocum Disease and has already had a mild stroke. I've contacted Demelza twice to get a place for him so he can have 24-hour specialist care and all the equipment he needs around him.

"But each time I've got him ready to leave, we've been turned down because the hospice has not had enough beds."

She added: "I know it's not the hospice's fault but I might have to face the next six months looking after Oliver at home."

Head of Care at the hospice Elaine Lawrence explained the reason Oliver has been turned away is because the hospice is under-funded and under-staffed.

She said: "It is soul-destroying when we have to turn children like Oliver away but we only have eight beds and we need an extra five registered children's nurses. Until then, we are not able to take on any more children."

She added: "This all comes back to getting no statutory funding which the News Shopper has bought to people's attention."

Since the News Shopper launched its campaign calling for funding for children's hospices, Dartford's Ellenor Hospice, which provides hospice care at home to 80 children, has written to us asking to be part of the campaign.

Demelza House opened three years ago and costs £1.6m a year to run. It looks after children from all over the News Shopper circulation area.

Demelza House provides short-term respite care and terminal care. It often works with its child patients from the day they are diagnosed until they die.

You can help the hospice by donating cash or writing to your MP asking him or her to raise the issue of NHS funding for children's hospices. Call Demelza House on 01795 845200. (Registered charity number 1039651)

Cheques should be made payable to Demelza House. Send them to News Shopper, Demelza House Appeal, Mega House, Crest View Drive, Petts Wood, Orpington, Kent BR5 1BT.